Former US President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton, the former Secretary of State, have agreed to testify in the Congressional investigation into the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
This comes days before a vote on whether the couple will be charged with "criminal contempt" for refusing to appear before the House Oversight Committee after a months-long impasse.
Bill Clinton was acquainted with Epstein, who died in prison in 2019, but has denied having any knowledge of his committing any sex crimes and says he cut off contact two decades ago, foreign media write, according to Telegraph.
It is not clear when the testimony will take place, but it will be the first time a former US president has testified before a congressional panel since Gerald Ford did so in 1983.
The Republican-led House Oversight Committee approved the measure to charge the Clinton family with contempt late last month, with the support of some Democrats.
On Monday evening, Bill Clinton's deputy chief of staff, Angel Ureña, posted on X confirming that the couple would appear before the panel.
"They negotiated in good faith," Ureña wrote in a post to the House Oversight Committee. "You didn't."
"They told you under oath what they know, but you don't care. But the former president and the former Secretary of State will be there. They're eager to set a precedent that applies to everyone."
Bill Clinton has never been accused of wrongdoing by survivors of Epstein's abuse and has denied any knowledge of his sexual offending.
Epstein's private plane records show Clinton took four international flights in 2002 and 2003.
The former president also appears at the late financier's property in photos that were among a set of records released by the Justice Department to comply with a law passed by Congress that mandates the disclosure of all investigative material related to the late convicted pedophile.
One photo shows the former president swimming in a pool and another shows him lying on his back with his hands behind his head in what appears to be a hot tub.
Ureña, Clinton's spokesman, said at the time that the photos were decades old and Clinton had stopped associating with Epstein before his crimes came to light. /Telegrafi/
